The proposed work of the Child Metal Health in Alternative Family Styles Project has the following objectives: 1. to continue a longitudinal study of the socialization practices of a population of two hundred Caucasian children who have been followed since the third trimester and who live in a variety of family settings, only one of which has been the nuclear two-parent family; others are single mother households, living groups, and social (not legal) contract families; 2. to continue periodic psychological testing and observations in the project offices and in the home environment for evaluating the implications of these varying family life styles on the child's physical, socio-emotional and cognitive development; 3. to examine the adjustive skills and competencies as they interface with the community setting and mainstream institutions, as preschools and clinics; 4. to evaluate the implications of new and emerging family life styles and parenting practices for institutional and service-related mental health care services. Children are now in the preschool period, from four to five years of age. Methods and procedures followed to date and to be continued in the next period utilize a multitrait, multimethod approach to validate and provide multiple perspectives on family and child development data to be collected. Methods include parent questionnaires and interviews, observations of the family and child in the home setting; and standardized and semi-standardized psychological tests. The main data collection period in the coming year will be at 5-1/2 years, when a dinner-time home observation will be conducted. The suitability of a number of analytic techniques for conceptualizing and summarizing the family environment/child experience/and developmental outcome inter-relationships is under exploration.